"Grid Daring" - February 14, 2020

A place to discuss the weekly Wall Street Journal Crossword Puzzle Contest, starting every Thursday around 4:00 p.m. Eastern time. Please do not post any answers or hints before the contest deadline which is midnight Sunday Eastern time.
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DrTom
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Location: Jacksonville, FL

#201

Post by DrTom »

Well dang! I have what I feel MUST be the answer, but I'll be darned if I can get the second part explicitly from the puzzle rather than implicitly from the puzzle, which of course worries the heck out of me. So, i got the aha, but not the AHA. I will be looking forward to the discussion and hopefully not to a MELLON slap. :?

I will be sooo disappointed if I am off by a few degrees, but even so I'll claim success because what i got fits all aspect of the puzzle demands (then again I thought that about FONT for "Just My Type"). Oh, and I have to agree with my fellow puzzlers that I do not see how you get the second part but not the first, seems like arriving at your destination without ever having a departure point?

"All will be revealed" - Diamond Head (granted all this time I thought it was Hercule Poirot, obviously the power of the internet to research that which you imagined you knew) Still I suppose that Hercule had an even better quote directed at METAs:

“Ah, but my dear sir, the why must never be obvious. That is the whole point.”- POIROT ;)
NUDGES!I am always willing to give nudges where needed; metas should be about fun, not frustration. Send me what you have done so far because often you are closer than you think!
Geezer Weezer
Posts: 128
Joined: Fri Jan 17, 2020 1:33 pm

#202

Post by Geezer Weezer »

I slipped ashore during during the night.
I am a man of few...
BrianDavidson
Posts: 118
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 8:27 pm

#203

Post by BrianDavidson »

I’ll be daring enough to claim my spot on the shore.
SewYoung
Posts: 726
Joined: Sun Apr 14, 2019 9:25 pm
Location: Meridian, MS

#204

Post by SewYoung »

DrTom wrote: Sun Feb 16, 2020 7:05 pm Well dang! I have what I feel MUST be the answer, but I'll be darned if I can get the second part explicitly from the puzzle rather than implicitly from the puzzle, which of course worries the heck out of me. So, i got the aha, but not the AHA. I will be looking forward to the discussion and hopefully not to a MELLON slap. :?

I will be sooo disappointed if I am off by a few degrees, but even so I'll claim success because what i got fits all aspect of the puzzle demands (then again I thought that about FONT for "Just My Type"). Oh, and I have to agree with my fellow puzzlers that I do not see how you get the second part but not the first, seems like arriving at your destination without ever having a departure point?

"All will be revealed" - Diamond Head (granted all this time I thought it was Hercule Poirot, obviously the power of the internet to research that which you imagined you knew) Still I suppose that Hercule had an even better quote directed at METAs:

“Ah, but my dear sir, the why must never be obvious. That is the whole point.”- POIROT ;)
"I do not see how you get the second part but not the first, seems like arriving at your destination without ever having a departure point?" Well, you know, sometimes when you are looking for directions somewhere; you realize that "you can't get there from here". You just have to start from somewhere else....
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DaveKennison
Posts: 238
Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 5:28 pm

#205

Post by DaveKennison »

Ashore (somewhat belatedly, as I’m still very much preoccupied with my move to a new house). Good puzzle, good metapuzzle ... enjoyed the respite from my quotidian labors.
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Bob cruise director
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Location: Any golf course within 500 miles of Littleton MA

#206

Post by Bob cruise director »

Our final report has 14 on the ship for the week and 104 on the shore. And we have a new muggle: Jim Jim who is keeping Isaac company this week

Getting to the shore since lunch are:
Joe R
Kris
Susan G
majordomoTom
higgisue
bobbydeee
Bulls****
rexthree
Brian
and DaveKennison

More discussion after midnight
Bob Stevens
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LLinNC
Posts: 39
Joined: Fri Jul 26, 2019 4:07 pm

#207

Post by LLinNC »

I finally have an answer I'm comfortable with, and I totally understand people who say they have the second part but not the first. It's like a dot-to-dot puzzle that has some dots missing, but you can still figure out what the picture should be. At least, that's how it is for me. Of course, I am drawing a dinosaur, and the answer may very well be a fire truck, but I'm crossing my fingers and heading to shore.
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grwinski
Posts: 211
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Location: Fort Collins, Colorado

#208

Post by grwinski »

Well we've departed from Isaac to a beach (but probably the wrong one). We have an answer that barely fits the criteria, but don't feel very confident with it. We'll be very interested in seeing the answer (and comments from everyone) tomorrow! Time for bed

Rita and George
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Lucksta
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#209

Post by Lucksta »

Finally! What a stuggle.
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pookie
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Joined: Mon Aug 12, 2019 5:46 pm

#210

Post by pookie »

I submitted my answer. Sure hope I'm right.
Yes, the second part has me worried too.
Nlobb
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Joined: Sat Nov 16, 2019 6:46 pm

#211

Post by Nlobb »

Ashore, maybe...
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Commodore
Posts: 362
Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 7:12 pm

#212

Post by Commodore »

Stuck in a 4D. My 56D has abandoned me. No 57D in sight. Isaac fetch me a final 26A and take to the lifeboat.
44D me no longer. Dear Charon, take me across the 69A. I'm going down with the ship.
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jhcogan
Posts: 17
Joined: Sat Oct 05, 2019 5:48 am
Location: Frontière Québec / États-Unis

#213

Post by jhcogan »

Spent the last few hours of Sunday by trying to solve the meta. I know I got quite a ways along. Just can't finish it. Still on the boat again--until next week. It will soon be eight bells. -Sailor John, USN Vet
Jeff S
Posts: 85
Joined: Thu Apr 25, 2019 11:18 pm

#214

Post by Jeff S »

I had part of an answer early on, and have yet to get any further. I'm sending in my "solution" as a sort of hail Mary, but have little to no confidence in it.
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MajordomoTom
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Joined: Sat Nov 02, 2019 12:09 am
Location: St. Louis, MO

#215

Post by MajordomoTom »

This one was a more "classic style" Gaffney where the grid doesn't really lead you to the answer, it more establishes a pattern which you need to follow, you get part of the answer, and the pattern provides the rest of the answer.

Four theme answers in the grid, as follows:

RING FINGER
MEAT MARKET
MADE AMENDS
TRUE NATURE

Note that each of these is a 4 letter word, and then a 6 letter word, where the 6 letters are the four from the first word, plus two more. Removing the duplicates, leaves you with:

FE
RK
NS and
NA

Now, looking at the grid, we find the following three letter words which all start with those two letters:

FES
RKO
NSA and
NAP

The last letters of these spell SOAP.

Ok, now we need to construct a "fifth" theme answer, which, if it were in the grid, would satisfy this pattern and also be a ten letter entertainment category.

SOAP + SOAP with two letters

and SOAP OPERAS comes to mind and is what I submitted.

There's no "ER" that I can find in the grid which follows the same pattern, so that's why I wasn't 100% on the answer, only 99.44% ivory soap confident.

:)

We'll probably see an answer on this pretty soon.
Last edited by MajordomoTom on Mon Feb 17, 2020 12:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
"Lots of planets have a North", the Ninth Doctor.
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Bob cruise director
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#216

Post by Bob cruise director »

Here is the process I followed to get to SOAP OPERAS which fits the category perfectly but also has several loose ends which hopefully don’t lead to another PAGEANT.

In each of the four theme answers with an *, there are a word of four letters followed by a word of six letters. The four letters in the first word are common to the second word so the leftover letters are FE in 17A, RK in 30A, NS in 47A and NA in 63A.

These two letter pairs are the first two letters of the following 18D FES, 50A RKO, 42A NSA and 65D NAP. Taking the extra letters you get SOAP. The obvious entertainment category is SOAP OPERAS which is good because you again have a 4 letter word followed by a six letter word. And you have the same commonality of the letters in the four letter word being common to the six letter word.

Also note the puzzle title is a four letter word followed by a six letter word with four letters in common.

Now the problems

I cannot get the leftover title letters, AN to fit into anything
The leftover letters in the answer, ER, don’t seem to close the loop with anything.

I tried to get a word out of SOAP +AN to go with SOAP but no luck
And I tried to do something with ER but no luck there either

So while I have a lot of confidence in SOAP OPERAS there are some dangling issues.
Bob Stevens
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Scott M
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Location: Charlottesville, VA

#217

Post by Scott M »

My submitted answer is SOAP OPERAS. Each of the four theme answers, as well as the title, consists of a four-letter word followed by a six-letter word containing all the letters of the first word plus two additional letters: RING FINGER (with an extra FE in FINGER), MEAT MARKET (RK), MADE AMENDS (NS), and TRUE NATURE (NA). The two leftover letters are found elsewhere in the grid with a third letter: 18d FES, 50a RKO, 42a NSA, and 65d NAP. The extra letters spell SOAP. Add two extra letters to SOAP to get OPERAS.

I looked for ways to get from SOAP to OPERAS for a long time before I figured out the mechanism. I’m sure there are plenty of solvers submitted correctly without making the leap to the ultimate answer.
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.
Mark Twain
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MajordomoTom
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Location: St. Louis, MO

#218

Post by MajordomoTom »

I had the same problems that Bob and Scott had.

Plus I had originally spelled "FES" the "other way" which is FEZ.

Giving me the letters Z, O, A and P. Giving me ... 2 days of headaches.

EDIT: and in Matt's book, there are examples where the "question" is along the lines of "The answer would be a perfect fifth theme answer in the grid".

This is of that type of puzzle.
"Lots of planets have a North", the Ninth Doctor.
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Deb F
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Location: Hilton Head Island

#219

Post by Deb F »

I, too, submitted SOAP OPERAS, having arrived at SOAP through the same process as those above. Tried to ID an opera but didn't but figured that was the logical form of entertainment. We'll see.
howardl
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Joined: Thu Oct 24, 2019 10:19 pm

#220

Post by howardl »

Major Domo at 12:02 describes exactly what I did. I submitted SOAP OPERAS but the one reservation I had was that I thought there might be a pointer to "OPERAS" that I had missed. And I had to change "FEZ" to "FES" because "AS IM" sure you already know, made sense for the across clue, whereas "AZ IM" sure you already know seemed wrong. I'll be shocked if SOAP OPERAS (for the reasons Major Domo describes) is not the right answer, but I await some explanation for where the clue to OPERAS is.
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